


A Very Merry Supernatural Christmas

by TeRogamusAdios



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Happy Family, Holidays, Presents, Reminiscing, Team Free Will, Ugly Sweaters, Winter, lots and lots of fluff, lots of cuteness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-16
Updated: 2014-12-16
Packaged: 2018-03-01 16:37:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2780147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeRogamusAdios/pseuds/TeRogamusAdios
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cas wants to make sure Sam and Dean have a Christmas to remember. He's surprised to find out that they want him in their happy family Christmas. They set up the workings for their own traditions, though reminiscing, emoting (yes, Dean too), and of course ugly sweaters are all part of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Very Merry Supernatural Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Holidays! This was written as a gift to everyone in the 2014 Supernatural Christmas Card Exchange.
> 
> The picture of Richard, Jensen, Jared, Misha, and Rob that Jason Manns tweeted to promote the "Christmas with Friends" album inspired part of this story.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own or represent the show Supernatural or any of its characters.
> 
> Unbeta-ed - All mistakes are my own.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Dean and Sam were sitting in the kitchen eating lunch and arguing over what to do for Christmas which, as Dean kept "helpfully" reminding Sam was in only three days. Cas was about to turn the corner into the room when he overheard them and popped out before they could notice him. He was going to give them a Christmas to remember.

When they woke up on the 23rd they saw that the library and entry were covered in beautifully strung garlands with fake bright red berries, both silver snowflakes and golden stars hanging from the ceiling, and little cute Santas and snowmen on the tables. Sam chuckled while Dean groaned, "Cas.. Get down here, now!" Dean's voice raising with each word.

Cas showed up after a couple of seconds wearing the most hideous Christmas sweater Dean had ever seen, and the most hilarious to Sam. He was holding two more. "Oh, good timing," he said whilst smiling wide and excited. "Here, these are for you to wear tomorrow." He practically shoved what they guessed were their sweaters into their arms before disappearing again.

"Well, that was interesting," Sam said, perplexed and trying to keep from busting out laughing.

Dean rolled his eyes, "oh shut up." He grimaced, I'm _not_ wearing this."

"Oh come on, Cas is excited. Don't hurt his feelings, just humor him!"

Sam was still grinning so hard Dean threw his sweater at his face before mumbling something Sam thought was "stupid angel and his stupid happy.." Dean stopped and turned toward the table interrupting his own train of thought. "Fine! Only because I'm curious to see what the guy has planned."

Sam smirked and folded their sweaters on the table, "Cool!" He slapped Dean on the back and grabbed his shoulder. "Now, breakfast!"

Dean grunted his approval. "All this before my freaking coffee," he grumbled. "You're cooking!" He called to Sam who was already out of sight.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When the brothers made their way to the kitchen for lunch they smelled the unmistakable vanilla smell of sugar cookies. They raced into the kitchen to find Cas pulling what look like at least his 10th tray of cookies from the oven. Dean howled in laughter at the sight of Castiel, Angel of the Lord, wearing an apron and oven mitts. Sam froze but quickly regained his composure at his brother's raucous laughter and elbowed Dean in the ribs. Dean laughed even harder before clearing his throat several times and wiping a tear from his eye stifling the rest of his amusement.

Sam glared at Dean, then turned to Cas, "You know you don't have to do all this." Sam smiled and spoke gently to the Angel who looked confused and maybe a little hurt by Dean's reaction.

Cas smiled weakly and shrugged, "I've heard you two speak of the Christmas before Dean went to Hell and noticed your melancholy this time of year. I wanted to give you a happy one. At least one to remember if not every year." He turned back to the cookies, moving one batch from the cooling rack and the newest batch onto it. "Besides," he said quietly, "I kind of want to celebrate it with you two."

Neither brother could resist at this point and pulled Cas into a hug which Dean quickly stepped back from as he mumbled an excuse of, "I don't do group hugs." Sam rolled his eyes as Dean continued, "Tell anyone and I'll break both of your noses."

Sam chuckled, "yeah, yeah, Mister 'I wuv hugs.'" He narrowly dodged Dean's playful slap and sat down as he chuckled. "We'd love to celebrate Christmas with you, Cas. You're family. And thank you for everything you've done." Cas smiled genuinely in response.

"So!" Dean interrupted, uncomfortable with the momentary silence. "We decorating these suckers or what?" he asked. Cas then reached into a cabinet and grabbed tubes green, red, blue, and white frosting as well as silver, red, green, and blue sugar. They decorated cookies, eating at least half of a tray each, for the next couple of hours.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Merry Christmas Eve!" Sam yelled as something warm and kind of rough, but still kind of soft, landed on Dean's face.

"Really, Sam? Sleep!" Dean called back, muffled by the heavy fabric. He pulled it off of his head as he sat up and groaned loudly when he saw that it was that ugly sweater Cas gave him to the day before. "I hate you both" he mumbled as Sam giggled and backed away enough to be hidden from Dean's line of fire.

"Hurry up!" Sam said excitedly. "Cas is here with hot chocolate! The good stuff, not the powder!"

"Have we ever even had 'the good stuff?'" Dean asked to an empty doorway.

"Nope!" Sam called over his shoulder.

Dean shuffled into the library a few minutes later and was greeted with coffee cake, coffee, hot chocolate, a wrapped package, and the two biggest dorks in the world wearing two of the ugliest sweaters in the world. He couldn't help grinning, though he tried to hide it.

"Looks good on you," Sam said with a cocky grin.

" _Leave it to Sam to pull off even an ugly sweater_ ", Dean thought. Dean was kind of, sort of, admitting to himself that he was becoming a little excited about this Christmas. Maybe even looking forward to it, though he'd never admit that to them. Probably.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After breakfast they sat around one of the tables talking for an hour or so when Cas asked how they'd spent Christmas growing up. Sam and Dean got quiet. Dean cleared his throat after a slightly awkward moment and looked at Cas, "we uh.. we didn't really get to. I mean, I tried to give Sammy a Christmas every year when he was little, but it never really turned out well."

"It was great, Dean." Sam chimed in. "It's not like you had much to work with. I appreciated the effort. That's what matters, and that we spent it together." Sam smiled a little sadly but Dean knew he was remembering them fondly.

That was when they noticed that Cas had disappeared. Again. Dean threw his hands up in resignation while Sam rolled his eyes at both of them. "Now what?" Dean asked not expecting an answer. Sam just shrugged. They continued talking about random Christmasy things purposefully avoiding mention of the Carrigans and anything about being stabbed or poked by trees and pine needles.

They ended up talking until early afternoon when the subject turned to dinner. Cas reappeared then just in time. As he'd been doing. Dean rolled his eyes light-heartedly as he smiled halfway through the gesture. "What ya got for us this time?" He asked.

Cas flashed that huge grin that had been pretty much plastered to his face for the last day and a half before answering. "I've brought dinner" He announced with pride. Sure enough, when he brought his hands from behind his back he was holding tote bags filled with food.

"Of course he'd go the reusable bag route," Dean thought before flinching at the green leaves sticking up from one of the bags.

Sam took two of the bags, ignoring Dean's terrified look, and lead them to the kitchen. They spent the next few hours cooking, Sam and Dean both grateful that Cas had the forethought to get a smaller portion of turkey instead of a whole one or even half of one so it would cook in time for dinner.

As they ate, Cas joining more for companionship than for the food, Cas cleared his throat. Sam and Dean looked up from their plates and met his eyes with the same curious look. Cas flushed and looked away for a moment out of nervousness. "There's one more thing." His voice was soft as he pulled a box from the chair next to his. The brothers looked at each other confused before Dean, who'd just finished eating, recognized it as the package from that morning and reached for it. Cas handed it to him, and Sam gestured for Dean to go ahead and open it himself. He pulled it open and looked into the plastic-lined cardboard box for a couple of minutes, studying the contents, before his jaw dropped. He sat frozen until Sam's utensils clanked on his plate signaling that he was finished.

Sam impatiently spoke up, "Well? What is it?"

"It's..." Dean was too awestruck to speak so he took something out and held it up for Sam to take. It was an old VHS tape, one Sam had never seen before and he read the label as he took it.

"Dean's First Christmas" it said in what he guessed was their mom's handwriting. Sam's eyes glassed over with a few tears that he promptly blinked back while Dean still sat with his mouth open. "Dean, dude, you're gonna eat flies if you don't close your mouth." Sam's voice rough with emotion.

Dean shut his mouth, but his expression didn't change as he looked over at Cas. "I don't know what to say," he managed. "How?"

"What Dean means to say is thank you," Sam quickly interjected. "This means more than we can say. It's the best gift we've ever gotten."

"Yeah," Dean cleared his throat, voice rough with emotion now as well. "What he said."

"Eloquent, Dean," Sam mumbled jokingly to which he received a sort of light kick to the shin.

Cas either didn't hear or ignored the end of that exchange and smiled shyly, "I just wanted to make your Christmas special." He looked Dean in the eyes to answer his question,

"I went to your first house after you three had made it outside and the flames had been mostly extinguished. I saved what I could fit into this box from the fire."

"How can we ever repay you?" Sam nearly whispered.

Cas' smile widened, "Spending this time with you, you allowing me to celebrate with you, is more than I could ask for. This is the best gift. I was repaying you."

Dean finally mustered up the ability to form a coherent sentence and spoke, "You're family, Cas. It's not a gift to you to spend Christmas with us, or New Year's or Thanksgiving or birthdays. Wait, do you even have a birthday?" Dean backtracked, "Nevermind, just.. this is for family and that's what you are. You don't need to do all of this to gain acceptance or anything. We appreciate it though!" he quickly added.

Cas chuckled, "I understand, Dean. Thank you." He looked honored.

Sam added, "We do appreciate it. Thank you, Cas." He smirked, "We do expect an answer to that birthday question when you figure it out though."

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Despite their excitement to watch the tapes they decided to wait until the next morning.

"Rise and shine, Dean!" Sam yelled again as what Dean figured must have been another sweater smacked him in the face.

"Really? Again?" Dean said exasperated. "Can't a guy sleep in on Christmas of all days?"

"Nope!" Sam replied. "Breakfast's ready, there's plenty of coffee, and there are even a couple of presents!" Sam walked away but not before Dean caught a glimpse of a white sweater: far different from that hideous orange one from the day before.

Dean looked down at his own new sweater. It was a nicer red one that had "Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal" stitched onto the front. "Yep, definitely from Sammy this time," he mused. Only after that did he notice the light blue tag stuck to it that read "-Sam" and snorted a laugh at the 'professionalism' of it.

When Dean walked into the library wearing his cooler red sweater and smiling he was ambushed by a certain Angel putting something on his head. Something that jingled. He reached up and felt fur and velvet. "Oh no, I draw the line at Santa hats. Especially ones with bells!"

Sam gave him the trademark puppy eyes while wearing one with deer antlers _and_ bells. "Okay fine," Dean conceded, "but only out of sympathy."

Dean thought he was going to die of laughter then as he saw Cas who was wearing a red and white striped onesie. "Candy cane!" he wheezed while trying to breathe.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They ate breakfast relatively silently with Dean going back for enough coffee to make him jittery. When he only had two bites of his eggs left he looked up like a deer in headlights, "didn't someone say something about presents?"

"We were wondering how long it would take you," Sam said, he and Cas looking far too amused. "You giant five-year-old," he added under his breath to which Cas giggled and Sam couldn't hide a pleased snicker.

"I am not," Dean bit out, then he realized he hadn't helped his case as Sam and Cas laughed harder. "Alright, alright, you've had your fun, _children._ " He glared at them with, partly mock, annoyance.

"Yeah, okay," Sam said between breaths, "presents!" He went over to the little 3-foot-tall tree potted Cas had found and grabbed a package wrapped in newspaper. He handed it to Dean who then noticed that it was wrapped in he comics section just like when they were kids and grinned. "Merry Christmas, Dean." Sam knew he was smiling way too wide because of both excitement and nerves.

Dean unwrapped it, ripping right through, and held up a glossy black shadow box. What was inside took Dean's breath away: shiny, brand new dog tags that read  
WINCHESTER,  
JOHN  
306-00-3894  
TYPE AB  
NON-RELIGIOUS  
Perfect replicas of the ones he buried at their mom's grave. On the right side of the box was a silver ring matching their mother's wedding ring only, like the dog tags, brand new. In the middle was a photograph of all four of them from shortly before the fire.

"Sammy, I.. This is incredible. Thank you." Dean didn't even try to hide the tears welling in his eyes.

After a moment of all three of them admiring the items in the frame Dean cleared his throat and excused himself to get Sam's gift from its secret hiding place in his room, which Sam could easy find. It was inside the box spring on the left side of the head of the bed. That was always his spot, partly because there was almost always a hole there or close to it in a bed in the motels.

When he returned Sam was holding their gift to Cas beside him where only Dean could see it. Dean nodded to let him know to go ahead and give it to Cas now. Sam held it out to Cas who looked at them both in surprise. They gestured for him to open it. When he'd carefully peeled the shiny gold paper back Cas' eyes got huge. He stared at it for a moment before he smiled and pulled Sam into a hug, then he stood up and hugged Dean as well. "Thank you so much!" he said while marveling at the porcelain Angel tree topper with brown hair tinged with gold and a white robe with gold edges and some elegant green swirling lines.

"We were looking for something for you and something to put on top of the tree and this seemed to fit," Dean said smiling at the thrilled Angel.

"We know how much you miss Gabriel and this kinda reminded us of him so we thought maybe this could be like having a piece of him here," Sam added.

Cas hugged them both again tighter and had tears in his eyes when he stepped back. "Merry Christmas, Cas," the Winchesters said in unison.

Cas carefully placed it next to the tree since it was a little bit too big and heavy to fit on their tiny tree. He made sure it was angled to face them so it could "see" everything going on. Sam grinned at him like Cas was his adorable little brother, but Dean was too busy trying not to be nervous about his gift to Sam.

When they had both settled down and were actually _staring_ at Dean expectantly, Cas moreso than Sam to Dean's surprise, Dean slowly handed something wrapped pretty terribly to Sam. Sam accepted the comics-wrapped gift and wasn't sure if he should be excited or wary. When he opened it he was excited as well as relieved that it wasn't anything weird or awkward.

He pulled the paper off carefully to reveal a photo album with a brown leather cover and "Family" stamped into bronze on the front. When he opened it he was even more excited, flipping through a few pages of pictures that had made it out of the fire. Others, Sam figured, must have been given to Dean later by people who'd known them or found in their dad's storage space.  
When he got nearly halfway through there was a picture of Sam and Cas talking while oblivious to the camera.  
Then there was one of Kevin studying the tablet while Sam read case files.  
"Dean, were you sneaking pictures over the last couple of years?" He glared at his obnoxiously, surprisingly sneaky older brother.

"Maybe," Dean feigned innocence. "Do you like it or not?" He asked feeling a blush rising in his face.

"I love it, Dean. Thank you."

"Merry Christmas, Sammy. Merry Christmas, Cas."

"Merry Christmas," they both returned, Sam affectionately adding "jerk."

They all looked through the photos: Kevin laughing, Sam and Cas cooking, which Sam knew was from the other day and rolled his eyes at, Kevin and his mom, Sam and Charlie during their Game of Thrones marathon, even Charlie and Dorothy posing at some point after the chaos that weirdly wizardy day. "Just one thing missing," Sam said thoughtfully. "What's that?" Dean asked, not paying much attention.

Sam quickly pulled his phone out and snapped a picture of Dean and Cas, then another of Dean's face the second he noticed that a picture was taken of him. Sam bent over laughing and showed the second picture to Cas who joined his laughter at the grumpiest picture of Dean in existence. In a Santa hat and an ugly sweater with the perfect phrase to match his face, no less. "Oh yeah," Sam gasped, "that's one for the album!"

"Screw both of you," Dean grumbled and snatched Sam's phone. He told Sam to "stop laughing for two seconds, will you?" Sam tried to hold it together and ended up with what was possibly the goofiest, most awkward face he'd ever made, which, Dean thought, was saying something.

Dean then turned back to Cas. "Your turn! Smile!" Dean warned as he tapped the screen. He smirked and passed the phone back to Sam.

"That's actually a nice picture, Cas!" Sam said turning the phone to show him.

"Yeah, aside from the candy ca-OW!" Sam kicked Dean's leg under the table to keep Dean from insulting Cas, even if it was jokingly.

Sam smiled at Cas while showing him that picture and the one Sam had taken of the two of them a minute ago. Cas smiled and nodded his approval. "Good, three more for the album then!" He tapped a few more times to save them before putting his phone away. "Home movies, anyone?"

Dean was already moving to stand as Cas nodded and stood. They all went to Sam's room which had become the official movie room. They all watched baby Dean toddling around in a onesie with footies ripping through wrapping paper and playing with boxes while their dad drank eggnog and laughed and their mom tried to keep Dean from sticking ribbons, bows, and paper in his mouth.

"You can't say anything about Cas's outfit now," Sam whispered to Dean. Dean responded with an elbow to Sam's ribcage.

They watched their parents opening their gifts and hugging and kissing each other and little Dean. They watched all four Christmas tapes. Sam and Dean were fighting back tears watching their dad holding their mom, pregnant with Sammy, and kissing her cheek while Dean played with toy cars and trucks. As the last tape ended the screen flickered. Cas jumped up to switch the lights on which flickered as well. Just as Sam and Dean jumped up to find salt or iron or something while both realizing how preposterous the bunker being haunted _again_ was, they heard a familiar voice call out, "found 'em! Sam's room!"

"Kevin?" they said together as the prophet flickered into the doorway. Sam and Dean's guard let down and both had a tear fall, Dean quickly catching and wiping away his.

"Come on, guys. Cheer up! It's Christmas!" Kevin looked a lot brighter than the last time they'd seen him. More alive, they noticed, if that was possible for a ghost. "Seriously though, get out here. My mom brought dinner and you don't want to keep her waiting." He looked at Dean, "and there's homemade pie." Kevin then vanished and Dean bolted out of the room toward the library. If anything could get Dean to run toward something, that something would be pie! The others followed quickly themselves. Cas, to his credit, didn't "cheat" by flying as Dean often accused.

The rest of the night and the entire next day were spent with food, stories, laughter, rewatching the Winchester movies as well as a couple that Mrs. Tran had brought from when Kevin was little, more food, a few more gifts, and many hugs. Too many hugs in Dean's opinion, but he wouldn't have traded anything about that Christmas for the world. None of them would.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked the surprise guests ;)  
> I had so much fun writing this! I plan to write again for the 2015 holiday season, but we shall see.
> 
> A huge thank you to everyone who participated in the Supernatural Christmas Card Exchange! It was a wonderful experience: one I'll cherish forever. You're all such great, loving people. It's been an honor to write this for you. I look forward to participating in future events with you!
> 
> Love to you all!


End file.
